Facing Her
by evieeden
Summary: What's a wolf to do when his imprint gets a little tipsy? Advent story written for 18th December.


**Happy 18****th**** December everyone. There's only one week left until Christmas so I hope you're not all run off your feet too much. I hope you like this story as well and thanks for continuing to read all my advent fics.**

**A huge thank you goes to idealskeptic who keeps my writing vaguely American, and, as always, I don't own Twilight.**

**Facing Her**

"What the fuck was Paul thinking?!"

I growled as I pulled a t-shirt over my head.

Storming out of the bedroom where I had been rudely awoken after only an hour of sleep, I paused by the front door to stomp my feet into my boots.

Following closely behind me, Jared shrugged.

"You told him to keep an eye on her," he replied nonchalantly.

"Exactly!"

I jerked the door open and then slammed it shut behind me. Jared scrambled to get out of the way in time.

"I said to keep an eye on her. Not to follow her down to some beach party and get her drunk."

I stormed through the trees behind my house towards the beach, determined to give my third a piece of my mind.

"In all fairness, I don't think he knew what else to do with her," Jared explained. "He's not used to making nice with girls without aiming to get between their legs at some point."

I couldn't stop the snarl that ripped out of my chest.

"He better not be thinking about getting between her legs!"

Running slightly to keep up with me, Jared clapped a hand on my shoulder.

"I figure at the very least he's doing you a favour keeping her in one place until you get there. Besides, he's not the one you should be worried about. One of her little friends has already tried to get her to go for a 'walk' with him."

I stopped abruptly and spun to face him, my fury rising.

"Who?" I demanded.

Jared scratched behind his ear and averted his eyes. It was a small sign of submission, but it calmed my raging wolf down a little.

"That Newton kid, whatshisface? The one whose family owns the sporting goods store in Forks."

An image swam to the front of my mind of a skinny, blond kid. Surely she wouldn't be attracted to _that _guy.

Jared continued, oblivious to my thoughts. "Funny thing is I reckon I've seen him before, in Jake's mind, you know." He tapped his temple with a finger to illustrate his point. "Jake seems to think he's a pussy."

I began walking again.

"Did Jake think anything else about him?" I asked.

Jared shrugged again.

"I don't know. I wasn't really paying attention. From what Paul's seen tonight, though, I'd say he was persistent."

I snorted at that. With guys like that, persistence was really just masked desperation.

"Still, if Paul wasn't there, he'd probably have a shot with her," Jared mused.

My wolf reacted to that, turning and pinning my second against the nearest tree by his neck.

"What do you mean by that?" I bit out.

Jared just let himself hang calmly in my grip, not trying to free himself or escape.

"I'm just saying that her drinking is out of character. She's depressed and missing Jake, and missing you, even if she doesn't know that yet."

My lip curled up at that.

Jared was unphased. "People make mistakes when they're drunk, Sam," he stated reasonably. "They get sad and they look for comfort wherever they can find it. Even with puny little human boys, if need be."

His words broke through my anger and I slowly released him, one finger at a time. He rubbed his throat when I finally took a step back.

"You know," he began quietly. "You might want to pull yourself together before you see her. I mean, the rest of us don't care if you flip your shit occasionally, but she's a bit more fragile than us. You'll want to be careful."

I took a deep breath, and then another, shaking out the tension that had crept into my neck and shoulders.

"Okay," I said.

Closing my eyes, I took another couple of soothing breaths.

It was important that I stayed calm. It was so important that I didn't fuck things up, not with her anyway. I was already the enemy as far as she was concerned. I didn't need her to notch up any more points against me.

Opening my eyes, I nodded shortly at Jared and his face broke into an easy grin.

"Let's go." I tilted my head in the direction of the beach and we both jogged the final few hundred yards.

Just before we broke through the tree line and arrived on the shore, I stopped Jared in his tracks.

"Where is Jacob tonight?"

"Out on patrol with Embry," he answered immediately. "Paul couldn't exactly leave her as she was to go phase and alert them to fetch you, so he borrowed someone's cell and called me instead."

I clapped him on the back.

"Thanks for coming out, man. I know you had a date tonight."

His grin widened. "No problem. Kim doesn't mind anyway; she knows I'll make it up to her later." The leer on his face abruptly disappeared and he became serious once more. "Just a question, but when are you going to let Jake see her again? You know he's going just as nuts as she is."

I knew that. It was pretty hard to miss it.

Even though Jake understood everything now, and got why he was keeping away from his best friend until he was under control, he was starting to whine like a little baby about not being able to see her.

It was driving all of us mad.

"Soon," I told Jared. "Probably next week some time." I ran a tired hand over my face, rubbing at my eyes. "Clearly the separation isn't doing either of them any good and I really don't want her to be unhappy."

Jared cackled. "Whipped already, bro." He punched my arm. "You've got it bad."

I reached out to grab him in a headlock, but he skipped merrily out of my way, hooting the whole time. I pulled a face at him, but eventually I couldn't help but smile at his antics.

"Come on," I mock growled. "Let's go rescue Paul from the tiny, harmless girl."

When we reached the beach, however, it began apparently that despite her lack of stature, the 'tiny girl' wasn't as harmless as she first appeared.

I watched as Bella began yelling at my third about all men being stupid idiots. Her arms waved in the air as she ranted, beer spilling from the open bottle she clutched in her hand. A little way down the shore line, a group of teenagers sat clearly listening to the argument, even though they were trying not to stare.

To Paul's credit, he had now managed to get hold of her hands so she wouldn't hurt herself by trying to hit him.

"Your imprint's got balls," Jared commented. "To take a swing at Paul like that."

"Yeah," I agreed absently.

My imprint.

It seemed strange to think that on first meeting the girl, I hadn't felt anything particularly extraordinary towards her. That night when we had been called out into the forest by Billy to track down the chief's missing daughter, I had located the girl, picked her up, held her close to me. Beyond concern for her general health, I hadn't really felt much else.

Still, I hadn't looked in her eyes then.

It wasn't until weeks later when we had run into her and Jake by the general store that I had properly looked at the girl I had rescued for the first time.

In that moment, I became hers, and she became mine.

Luckily for me, Jake had assumed that I was staring gormlessly at him, given that he had caught the pack keeping an eye on him for any signs of phasing in the past.

I was also lucky in that my small pack – Jared, Paul and Embry – had all accepted my new imprint with relatively little fuss, although Paul had pushed his luck at first with his constant references to her being a leech-lover.

Strangely though, my imprint with Bella was nothing like Jared and Kim's. They were instantly and completely in love, whereas it was as if my wolf could sense that Bella was still suffering from her previous abandonment and didn't want to push.

So I had resolved, for now, to only protect her as best as I could, both when she was hanging out on the reservation with Jacob and his friends and when she was at home with her father.

For a while she had appeared to be getting better, emerging from the depression that her bloodsucker had left her in. I had begun to think that I might be able to approach her soon, just to spend time with her... get to know her a bit better.

However, Jacob had proved a problem when he had phased after a night out with her and some of their friends. For her own safety, I had to order him to stay away from her until he had gained control over his phasing.

Just because I knew it was the right thing to do didn't mean that it didn't kill me to see her devastated face when he fobbed her off with excuse after excuse. Or that his regrets over leaving her alone didn't haunt me every time I patrolled with him.

Still, at least they'd have some kind of reprieve when I relaxed the order after the weekend.

For the moment, however, I had an angry and upset imprint to deal with.

Not that Paul was helping matters by laughing uproariously at her attempts to beat him up. I idly wondered what he had said exactly to piss her off.

Glancing at Jared, I gave him his orders.

"She's a mess; she can't go home like this. Go to the Blacks' and tell Billy to call her father and make some excuse."

"And where will she be going then if not home?" he asked with an arch grin.

I glared at him. "If you want, I can send you out to take over from the pups on patrol instead of letting you go back to Kim like I had planned."

The change in his face from amused to panicked almost made me laugh.

"Go." I cuffed him around the head softly. "Get Billy to call Charlie and then tell Kim that I said 'hi'."

Grinning at me, he quickly turned and ran off in the direction of the Black house.

In the meantime, I steeled myself to face my imprint and rescue her from Paul.

He was still laughing when I reached the two of them, after shooting a warning glare at the other kids from Forks, who immediately began packing up the mess they had made on the beach. It was difficult not to growl out loud at the scrawny boy that memory identified as Mike Newton. If he had even thought about laying one finger on Bella... I was somewhat gratified when he flinched and averted his eyes from my incensed glare.

"Hey Sam." Paul smirked at me as he easily fended off Bella's fists. "Your girl's a hellcat once you get her going."

Realising that they were no longer alone, Bella shot an angry look at me before turning back to Paul.

"His girl?" she shrieked. "_His girl?!_ Since when have I been his girl?!"

She wasn't even trying to hurt him anymore, her fists just pounding weakly against his chest as tears welled in her eyes.

"I'm not his girl. I'm not anyone's girl. You ruin everything."

Jerking against him, she managed to get her hands free, but rather than flying at him further, she sagged down, as if all the fight had gone out of her. Stumbling backwards, she sat down heavily on one of the fallen logs that littered the beach and buried her head in her hands.

Paul looked at her and then me, worry crossing his face.

He needed a break, and despite the fact that my imprint was now drunk, he had done a good job of keeping her away from harm.

"Go. Get some sleep," I ordered him. "I'll take your shift in the morning."

The corners of his mouth hitched up briefly before he turned and ran off. From the look on his face, I could tell that he would be running off some of his latent aggression tonight before he went home.

I would talk to him later though, check that he was okay.

For now, I had Bella to deal with.

"Bella?"

She ignored me, taking another swig of her beer.

Holding back a tired sigh, I sat down next to her. Her friends had all disappeared by now, gone home to their families. I wondered whether her father was at home too, waiting for her, or if he was working the night shift again.

We sat in silence while she finished her beer. She stared off into the distance as she drank, avoiding looking at me. I, on the other hand, couldn't stop staring at her, hungrily memorising every inch of her profile.

"Why do you always ruin things?" she asked quietly.

My heart sank. "I didn't know I did."

She laughed then, a harsh, bitter sound.

"You took Jake away from me," she complained. "He's my friend and he was afraid of you and now all of a sudden – what? You're suddenly BFFs? That doesn't just happen."

I was suddenly tired of all the subterfuge involved in the pack. It had hurt so many people, turned so many lives upside down and all for what?

As an imprint, Bella deserved to know the truth. Hell, she had kept the Cullens' secret for them, so I knew that she wouldn't be running her mouth if I told her about the wolves. A part of me was scared though – scared of what she would think, scared of what she would do, scared that she would run away and never come back.

But maybe I could tell her later, when she wasn't drunk and I wasn't exhausted and we could sit down and properly talk about everything.

"And you ruined tonight," she continued, oblivious to my internal dilemma. "All I wanted was to have a good time, and Paul said you sent him to stop me."

Damn Paul, and his big mouth.

"I didn't send him to stop you," I defended myself. "I just wanted him to keep an eye on you."

"But why?"

She finally turned to face me, desperation on her face.

"Why did you send him to watch me? Why did you take Jacob away from me? I know he didn't want to go."

I reached out hesitantly and rested my hand on her shoulder. I was gratified when she didn't pull away, but leaned into my touch.

"He didn't want to go," I confirmed and she sucked in a sharp breath. "But I'm going to have to ask you to believe me when I say that I wouldn't have kept him away from you if I hadn't believed that it was safer."

She looked up at me blearily. "Safer? For who? _Jacob?_" Her tone was incredulous.

"No, for you," I replied.

Her head jerked back. "I'm not in any danger. He would never hurt me."

"No, he wouldn't, not if he could help it," I agreed. Even though my pack mate knew about my imprinting on his best friend, he was still absolutely devoted to the girl. I couldn't blame him. "But he wouldn't necessarily be in control of himself and he would be distraught if he accidentally harmed you."

Bella blinked slowly. "Is this the secret?"

I didn't understand what she meant. "The secret?"

She nodded. "I've been trying to work it out, ever since Embry joined your little gang, why you act like you do. I figure that it's all a big secret that you don't want anyone to know about, but you're not a gang and you're not all on drug like everyone says. Jake's not that kind of person, and neither is Embry. So it can't be that. And despite what everyone thinks, you're not out doing bad things or beating up people. My dad says you've cleaned up the reservation."

Well, she certainly noticed a lot. My imprint was clever, my wolf thought proudly.

"Yes, it's the secret," I confirmed. "It's all of ours secret, including Jake's. But if you give it the weekend, then I won't stop him from seeing you anymore."

"You won't?" The hope in her voice was painful to hear.

"No, I won't. And I'm sorry that Paul ruined your evening tonight."

She sniffed and shuffled closer to me, so that her side was now pressed against mine.

"He wasn't so bad," she mumbled. "He kept Mike away from me and gave me some beer."

"I noticed." I tried not to sound too grim. I was still a little pissed at Paul for thinking that distracting her with alcohol was a good idea.

"Don't be mad." She slapped my arm and I noticed that her speech was becoming more slurred. Clearly the beers she'd had were beginning to take effect. "I liked them."

I grunted in acknowledgement. "I think you may have liked them a little too much."

She wriggled a bit closer so that she now tucked into my side, under my arm.

This was getting dangerous.

She felt amazing pressed against me, but she was drunk and I in no way wanted to take advantage of her while she was vulnerable.

"Come on, Bella."

Standing up, I used my grip on her to swing her up into my arms. From what I had seen from our protection of her, she didn't have the best co-ordination when sober, so I dreaded to think what she would be like if I let her walk while she was drunk.

I would take her to my mother's. She wouldn't mind taking in the girl for the night, especially as I had confided in her what she meant to me and my wolf. Plus, I would hate for Charlie Swan to feel that he had to shoot me if I took her back to my place.

Bella was practically falling asleep in my arms as I walked through the quiet town.

I nearly dropped her when she suddenly spoke. "Sam? Why do I like you so much?"

I tripped over my feet, and she giggled lightly at my unexpected stumble.

"You like me?" I couldn't help asking.

"I don't know," she murmured sleepily. "Sometimes I do, and then I think you're mean for taking Jacob away, but then I like you again."

I shouldn't have asked, but I couldn't help myself.

"And what about now that you can see Jake again?"

Bella hummed softly. "I think then I might like you a lot, but I don't know."

I smiled at her caged answer.

"I like you too, Bella. A lot."

She didn't reply, but she did loop her arms around my neck as I carried on walking. It made me smile.

I would tell her everything tomorrow and hopefully she would listen and wouldn't reject me outright. From the hints she had given me tonight, I thought that maybe I stood a chance to begin building some kind of a relationship with her, whether that was friendship or something else.

For now, I was happy with what I did have: my imprint in my arms as I strolled down the darkened road.

At that moment in time, I couldn't ask for more.


End file.
